From:	Melanie Siddans 
Sent:	Monday, 7 December 2009 8:15 PM
To:	disabdis
Subject:	Opposition to the reduction of captioning in movie theatres.

Dear Human Rights Personnel,
As the mother of a son who is profoundly deaf I wish to oppose the exemption that the  Cinema 
Industry has applied for relating to captioning for the next two and a half years.

If accepted, deaf and hard of hearing people will lose their right to complain about the lack of 
captioning at any of the 125 cinemas owned by Village, Hoyts, Reading and Greater Union 
Cinemas for the next 2.5 years.  If accepted, captioning will be offered at 35 cinemas just 3 times 
a week (which translates to one movie a week, mostly off peak - just 0.3% of the estimated 
40,000 films screened by these four major cinemas each week). 
  
What kind of discrimination will come next???? Perhaps they could remove the ramps for people 
in wheel chairs.

Should it be accepted, I would hope that the people who allow these new exemptions have 
children themselves who are born deaf so they can realise just how difficult it can be for people 
with disabilties in this supposedly 'politically correct' and 'disability aware' society in which we 
live.

Regards

Melanie Siddans